The third World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC) was held in Perth, Australia, from 4 to 8 July 2011. This was the third WPSC event held in a decade, following the 2001 and 2006 congresses held in Shanghai and Mexico City respectively.
The WPSC is an initiative of the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN), the umbrella network of nine planning schools associations that includes AAPS. Over 400 delegates attended the event held in Perth’s International Convention Centre.
This WPSC was a little different from the prior two events. Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), together with AAPS, made significant contributions to the proceedings. A meeting was held with other GPEAN members to share details on the AAPS memoranda of understanding with SDI and WIEGO.
The meeting was interrupted by a phone call from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, seeking to interview Melanie Manuel from SDI for her input on slums for the program ‘Future Tense’. Listen to the program by clicking here.
AAPS and its partners also contributed to a panel discussion convened by Prof Keith Pezzoli from the University of California, San Diego, and Prof Vanessa Watson, on ‘Grand Challenges in Global Planning and Engaged Scholarship: Linking Diverse Networks, Sustaining Collaborative Infrastructure, and Creating Transdisciplinary Knowledge Commons’. In addition to contributions from Aditya, Melanie and Bheki from SDI, Sonia from WIEGO provided important inputs to the discussion. It was a stimulating event, confirming that alliances between planning schools and civil society organisations are key to increasing the relevance planning education.
The construction of a shack on the conference premises was perhaps AAPS and SDI’s most visible contribution to the event. The structure was built with the assistance of conference chair AProf Paul Maginn’s students from the University of Western Australia and colleagues from UN-Habitat, and was an ongoing visible reminder of the plight of slum dwellers internationally and the realities we need to prepare our students for.
